MSE News: Ryanair 'sticks two fingers up at passengers' with new card fees

SaveTheEuro

apt wrote: »

This move by the government is too little too late.

Too little? Isn't it going further than the Office of Fair Trading suggested?

2sides2everystory

We all absorb "News" like it is the one-sided boring constant stream of peddled propaganda it is - so we miss obvious angles too easily, don't we?


Those of us who are interested in such things will have noted that Ryanair are quoted as arguing that their card fee is not a card fee i.e. nothing to do with a card.

Ryanair now say their £6 per person each way fee is an Admin Fee associated with their booking system. Furthermore they say they have never applied a card fee.

Why does our government tolerate such blatant lies from this airline?

Actions speak louder than words:

On Ryanair's website this £6 per person each way fee does not materialise until you click on one dropdown box only - the one next to the various cardtype logos where you must select the name of the type of card you will pay with. For those who are technically minded it does it using this code:

<select name="PaymentLayoutView$PaymentInputCCFRPaymentView$DropDownListPaymentMethodCode" id="PaymentLayoutView_PaymentInputCCFRPaymentView_DropDownListPaymentMethodCode" required="true" minlength="2" requirederror="Please select Card/Payment type" onchange="changePaymentAttributes(this);"><option value="">Please select...</option><option value="ExternalAccount:MC">Ryanair Mastercard</option><option value="ExternalAccount:VI">Ryanair Visa</option><option value="ExternalAccount:VI">3V Visa Prepaid Vouchers</option><option selected="" value="ExternalAccount:CN">Visa Connect</option><option value="ExternalAccount:DL">Visa Debit / Delta</option><option value="ExternalAccount:MC">Master Card</option><option value="ExternalAccount:MC">Mastercard Prepaid</option><option value="ExternalAccount:MS">UK Maestro</option><option value="ExternalAccount:RP">Ryanair Cash Passport</option><option value="ExternalAccount:SO">Solo</option><option value="ExternalAccount:VE">Visa Electron</option><option value="ExternalAccount:VI">Visa</option></select>

The moment you change it you will get a final total that says it "Includes Administration Fee". Until you change that box (only) you will be looking at a Total that "Excludes Administration Fee".

Again for the technically minded you will notice in that dropdown box code that the option value has a two character 'ExternalAccount:' suffix e.g. for Ryanair Cash Passport it is "RP".

Well, guess what that variable is called in the website code? You guessed right cardsfees

More code which sets the actual value for those variables in this example of a return flight from UK and also seems otherwise responsible for flagging any opportunities for Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) is this:

_paymentMethods = {'CN':{'DCC':true,'Fee':12.0000000}
,'DL':{'DCC':true,'Fee':12.0000000}
,'EV':{'DCC':false,'Fee':12.0000000}
,'LS':{'DCC':false,'Fee':12.0000000}
,'MC':{'DCC':true,'Fee':12.0000000}
,'MP':{'DCC':true,'Fee':0}
,'MS':{'DCC':false,'Fee':12.0000000}
,'RP':{'DCC':true,'Fee':0}
,'SO':{'DCC':false,'Fee':12.0000000}
,'VE':{'DCC':true,'Fee':12.0000000}
,'VI':{'DCC':true,'Fee':12.0000000}
};


// [End] DCC

var currency='GBP',
decimalPlaces = 2,
dSep = ".",
gSep = ",",
currpref='',
currsuff=' GBP',
paxnum=1,
seg=2;


var cardsfees={
VI:6 * 1,MC:6 * 1,TP:6 * 1,DL:6 * 1,CN:6 * 1,SW:6 * 1,SO:6 * 1,MU:6 * 1,MS:6 * 1,VE:6 * 1,LS:6 * 1,VP:6 * 1,EV:6 * 1,EV:6 * 1,MP:0.00 * 1
};

//creditCardfeeDyn
var selectcard='\nSelect a card type for further information on handling fees\n',
CardFeetxt='An Administration Fee of {2} (or local currency equivalent) applies to this transaction.\n\nThis is calculated on a per passenger per sector (flight) basis \n\nYou have {3} passenger in your booking and \nare charged {4} per passenger per flight';

Pretty strange that their website programmers decided to call the variable cardsfees when adminfees would do just as well if you knew what you were tasked to achieve, don't we think?

Are we surprised that Ryanair have left their shirt hanging out like this? Not really. You can see changes to the code are a work in progress and I think this probably results in at least one visible bug on their webpage: if you change the dropdown box through Ryanair Cash Passport you get one Total on the right of the page which says it "Includes Administration Fee" and one on the left that "Excludes Admnistration Fee" probably caused because the variable RP is not allocated a zero value in the same way as the other types. All a bit of a Friday rush really ... Hey ho ho.

Merry Christmas All ! Sorry this if this seems a sorry excuse for a Christmas [STRIKE]card[/STRIKE] :lipsrseal: :snow_laug:

SaveTheEuro

2sides2everystory wrote: »

Ryanair now say their £6 per person each way fee is an Admin Fee associated with their booking system. Furthermore they say they have never applied a card fee.

Why does our government tolerate such blatant lies from this airline?

No one could accuse you of not putting the work in 2sides2everystory!

Ryanair's argument falls flat on its face because the "admin fee" is only charged on customers using credit or debit cards -- hence it's a penalty for those customers compared to people who pay by other means.

It doesn't matter today whether or not they are lying but once the law is changed the "it's only an admin fee" argument would not survive a court challenge.

Thanks for all your technical evidence. Merry Christmas.

BusPass_2

This is great work 2 sides.

Is there some 'official' place OFT, maybe? where you can submit your evidence so that Ryanair will have to reply to your findings.

While I am in awe of your efforts and technical ability I just have this gut feeling that Mr O'L will just find some other cunning way to increase his income.

I think, that despite your sterling efforts, I see the biggest threat to Mr O'Ls future profits being !!!!ed Offness, if such a phrase exists, because the web site is now too fiddly to be bothered with and even if 20 per cent of his customers are put off by it there will be a massive drop in his T/O unless he dramatically increases prices which will achieve the same debilitating effect on his T/O and thus profit.

Looks like he is in a lose lose situation.

It'll be interesting to follow this story as it develops.

BusPass_2

Phrase should have been P*ssed Offness.

Sorry.

Doc_N

BusPass wrote: »

I think, that despite your sterling efforts, I see the biggest threat to Mr O'Ls future profits being !!!!ed Offness, if such a phrase exists, because the web site is now too fiddly to be bothered with and even if 20 per cent of his customers are put off by it there will be a massive drop in his T/O unless he dramatically increases prices which will achieve the same debilitating effect on his T/O and thus profit.

Judging by the fact that the latest Which? survey puts Ryanair second to bottom in the short-haul airline satisfaction ratings (Thomas Cook Airlines being at the very bottom), I think the p***d-offedness factor is becoming increasingly relevant.

OK, they're only Which? subscribers and maybe not typical Ryanair customers, but there comes a tipping point when consumers start to see a brand (MFI?) as damaged, whatever the price.

I think we're reaching that point with Ryanair, and if MO'L thinks he can continue to make profits without a large chunk of the market, good luck to him. I suppose Marmite's still profitable.

moneysaver129

Is anyone really still using this lot? Really you have yourself to blame if you use them. For goodness sake use a real airline and pay the extra.

richardw

There's no 'real airline' flying to where I want to go to that many have not heard of.

gowgowuk

Same here... It's either a direct Ryanair flight or a very long winded trip via Heathrow. Also, it's all very well to say "pay the extra", but in some cases, we are talking paying 2 to 3 times the amount charged by Ryanair. If you can afford it, great, but I don't feel like I have so much to spend.

Doc_N

moneysaver129 wrote: »

Is anyone really still using this lot? Really you have yourself to blame if you use them. For goodness sake use a real airline and pay the extra.

Totally agree - wouldn't use them at any price, particularly after the recent Channel 4 documentary and the information about their fuel policy and the number of emergency landings. I'd put the safety of my family ahead of saving a few quid on a flight.

http://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/dispatches-ryanair-pilots-concerned-about-passenger-safety

The latest Which? survey on customer satisfaction puts Ryanair right at the very bottom of the list - 100th out of 100. No great surprise there, but the recent Ryanair profits warning suggests that people could now be voting with their feet and finding alternatives (which are often little or no more expensive).

O'Leary seems to have finally woken up to the fact that hsi aggressive anti-customer stance is now backfiring on them

Ryanair is to reform its "abrupt culture", chief executive Michael O'Leary says.

"I am very happy to take the blame or responsibility if we have a macho or abrupt culture. Some of that may well be my own personal character deformities," he said.

"On Friday morning, Ireland's Daily Mail detailed how Ryanair had charged a customer 188 euros (£160) to change his flight after his family had died in a fire. Dr Muhammad Taufiq Al Sattar told the newspaper that he broke down in tears as he tried to explain to staff at Dublin airport why he needed to change to an earlier flight to Birmingham."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24177834